Iran is warning it will unleash devastating strikes on civilian infrastructure and American warships across the Persian Gulf if President Donald Trump launches another major offensive against the Islamic Republic.
Tehran has signaled that Gulf airports, pipelines and other civilian facilities could be targeted if the U.S. and Israel resume their air campaign, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with diplomatic warnings. Iranian officials have also threatened to sink American warships and kill their crews.
The threats come amid a major U.S. military buildup, with both sides bracing for possible escalation after the Nov. 3 midterm elections. A senior military official told the Daily Caller News Foundation that operations against Iran could rapidly intensify, warning that things are about to get “spicy.”
The human toll keeps climbing. The war has killed 21 American service members, including 11 from hostile action, and wounded 865 more, according to Pentagon casualty records as of Oct. 23. U.S. and Israeli strikes killed at least 3,636 people in Iran through April 7, including 1,701 civilians, according to the Human Rights Activists News Agency. Iranian attacks killed at least 13 people in the United Arab Emirates, and an Oct. 10 attack by Iran-backed Houthi rebels on Riyadh’s main airport killed 12 people, including an American citizen, and wounded 309.
Iran’s proxies have already shown they can hit the region’s energy backbone. Iran-backed militias struck Saudi Arabia’s East-West Pipeline in September, destroying one pumping station and damaging two others, Reuters reported. Houthi rebels damaged Saudi Aramco’s Abqaiq processing complex in July.
Tehran is now eyeing American tech assets as well. Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, said data centers, AI facilities and undersea cables could be targeted. Iranian drones hit Amazon Web Services facilities in the UAE and Bahrain in March, and AWS acknowledged in September that some customer data could not be restored. A Revolutionary Guard general separately warned that seven major undersea internet cables running through the Strait of Hormuz could be hit. More than 99% of international data traffic travels through undersea networks.
On the U.S. side, roughly 9,000 additional sailors and Marines began deploying in late September aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt carrier strike group and the USS Makin Island amphibious ready group, though both ships remained in the Western Pacific as of Oct. 26. American aerial refueling flights over the Middle East jumped roughly 50% in early October. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth also made an unannounced trip to Israel to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Netanyahu had pushed to resume major strikes before Israel’s Oct. 27 election, but Trump opposed restarting the war before the midterms, the Financial Times reported. Netanyahu’s office disputed that account. The White House has said the U.S. will not launch new attacks before the midterms.
Meanwhile, the International Maritime Organization has documented 121 maritime incidents and 24 seafarer deaths across the Middle East. Brent crude topped $117 a barrel last week before easing to about $116 on Tuesday. The State Department ordered nonemergency government staff and their families to leave Saudi Arabia on Oct. 23.
U.S. Central Command commander Adm. Brad Cooper testified that American strikes destroyed roughly 90% of Iran’s drone, missile and naval defense industrial base. Tehran insists it still has the firepower to retaliate.
